Midrash: Jesus in the Garden

Midrash: Jesus in the Garden

Some of you may not be familiar with Moriel Ministries, so I will take a few minutes to explain one of the things that we do. We try to help Christians to understand the Bible in its original context of the first-century Church,

which was established by the Lord through Jewish Christians. We try to read the Bible the same way the early Jewish church would have read it. There have been others who have tried to do that through the centuries, with varying degrees of success - most notably the Plymouth Brethren. We believe it to be important in the Last Days to understand how to interpret the Bible in the way the first-century Church did.

(For those who already know this, I apologize. However, there may be readers who are new to our teaching or who are new in the faith, and for their sakes all of this bears repeating.)

When a Jewish Christian in the first century read the first four chapters of John's Gospel, he would have said that it parallels the Book of Genesis. He would have said that the story of the New Creation in John's Gospel is a midrash on, or an inquiry into, the Creation. The New Creation in John corresponds to the Creation in Genesis; Genesis tells us that God walked the earth, and Adam heard Him in the Garden of Eden. This speaks of Jesus: it is a Christophany, which is the theological term for an Old Testament manifestation of Jesus. John tells us in his first chapter that His Word became flesh, and once again God walked the earth.

The Creation account in Genesis speaks of the Small Light and the Great Light, referring to the moon and the sun. In John, we again find the Small Light - John the Baptist, whose Hebrew name is Yochanon Ha Matbil - and the Great Light - Jesus the Messiah, whose Hebrew name is Yeshua Ha Mochiach.

In Genesis, God's Spirit moved on the water and brought forth the Creation. In John chapter four we hear of those who are born of water and of the Spirit; again, the Spirit moved on the water, this time to bring forth the New Creation. On the third day of Creation in Genesis, God does a miracle with water. In John 2:1, we read that the wedding at Cana is on the third day, and once more God does a miracle on the third day with water, this time in the New Creation. God began His first plan for man with the marital union of Adam and Eve; Jesus began His public ministry at a wedding in Cana, and God's second plan for man also commences with a marital union. The New Creation in John is full of parallels with the Creation in Genesis; one is a midrash of the other.

There are many things in Scripture that are like this. The Tree of Life in Judaism, which in Hebrew is called the es hayyim, is represented by a fig tree. We see it in Ezekiel 47 and in the Book of Revelation, but we see it first in the Creation in Genesis. In John chapter one, when Nathaniel asks Jesus how He knows so much about him, Jesus answers, "Because I saw you under the fig tree." What Jesus was saying to Nathaniel with these words was not simply that he saw him under a literal fig tree, although that was a part of it. What He was really saying in midrash, or Jewish metaphor, is this: "I saw you from the garden, from the Creation, from the foundation of the world."

Genesis and John, Creation and New Creation. Compare the Bible to a loaf of bread straight out of the baker's oven: before it has been sliced, it looks the same on both ends. In the same way, Scripture tells us that the Lord declares the end from the beginning. If we cut this loaf open, we arrive at John's Gospel. Most conservative Evangelicals believe that the same John who wrote the Gospel also wrote the Book of Revelation. In light of this, we see that we have first the Creation, next the New Creation, but then also the Re-Creation. If you look at Genesis in comparison with Revelation, you will see this kind of parallel. Once more in Revelation we see the Tree of Life that we first saw in Genesis. In Genesis 49 we find Jacob's prophecy to the twelve tribes of Israel; lo and behold, in Revelation seven and fourteen we find the twelve tribes once more.

Revelation tells us that "The dragon and the serpent are cast down to you". I don't believe that the dinosaurs are billions of years old, as stated in that interpretation of gap theory. The serpent was once quadrupedal or bipedal; in other words, it walked.It is interesting to note that every civilization from Mexico to China has stories of dragons. I've been a number of times to the Turanga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, and what a fantastic zoo it is! What would you call a lizard that measures nine or ten feet long by three feet high by two to three feet wide, and that could eat you? We call it a Komodo dragon. The word 'dinosaur' means simply 'great and terrible lizard'; I have seen them alive in our time.

To return to our point, the dragon spoken of in Revelation is Satan the Persecutor; the serpent is Satan the Deceiver. Jesus said in Matthew 23 that Abel was the first martyr: "Your brother's blood cries out", God tells Cain in Genesis. What do we see in Revelation? That the blood of the martyrs under the altar is crying out.

Then in Genesis we are told of Joseph's vision of the woman with the stars. In Revelation, there again: the woman with the stars, in chapter 12. The parallels go on and on and on like that. Again, it is like a loaf of bread; it looks the same from both ends before you cut it. When you do cut it, you see the pattern: Creation, New Creation, and Re-Creation.

With this background in view, turn with me, please, to the Book of Genesis chapter three. In Hebrew we call Genesis Bereshit, meaning 'In the Beginning'. Verse five: "'For God knows,' said the serpent, 'that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate, and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate." We see here the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life of which we are warned in John's epistle. John, author of Revelation and of the Gospel of John, is also the author of three epistles. We find midrashes on Genesis throughout his work; the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life is yet another example.

Generically, in God's economy there are only two men: the first Adam and the last Adam. When you were physically born, you were born of Adam. When you are born again, you are born of the last Adam, who is Jesus.

The second Adam, Jesus, had to be like Adam in certain aspects. Adam and Jesus were both created directly by God without procreative agency, and they were both created without sin. The first Adam, however, fell into sin. Before Jesus could go to the cross and take our sin upon Himself, He had to reverse what the first Adam had done. That is why in Mark chapter one, when it describes the temptation of Jesus, the text says that He was with the wild animals the same way Adam was. The picture of Jesus in the character of Adam is here being painted. Satan then comes to Jesus holding out the same three temptations into which Adam and Eve fell: the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life. What the first Adam fell into, the second Adam did not. Before Jesus could go to the cross, He had to overcome what the first Adam was overcome by. Then and only then could He go to the cross. That is why the text states, "And Satan departed from Him until the appropriate time." At their first encounter, Satan had to try to make Jesus fall into the same sin the first Adam did. At their second, He could and did take our sin. Jesus could not go to the cross on our behalf until He had reversed what the first Adam did; until He overcame where the first Adam failed.

At this point we will take a closer look at the phrase 'to know': the Hebrew word 'to know' is la daot, and the Greek term is gnosco. The serpent was already in the garden when Adam and Eve were told to subdue the Earth; they were always meant to know that evil existed, and to know objectively what it was; but they were not to know it within themselves. They were not to know it experientially, although they were to know it existed. We already know that the Tree of Life was present in the Garden of Eden; the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was also there. Adam and Eve had a choice between those trees: the Tree of Life or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They chose to try to be their own gods, to gain knowledge they were not meant to have. They were to know that evil existed, but they were not to know it within themselves. To understand this, we must grasp the different kinds of knowledge, of which we have two Biblical examples.

The first example is found in the high priest on the Day of Atonement: only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and even he only once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Any Hebrew, however, could read the Book of Leviticus and know what was inside the Holy of Holies. He could read descriptions of the furniture, the showbread, the Ark of the Covenant, etc., and in that sense he could know what was in there. Only the high priest, however, could know what it was like to go in there, because he was designated for it. He was sanctified, or set apart, for that purpose: in Hebrew, me kudesh. The Hebrew terms 'to know' and 'to sanctify', as in 'to set apart' - La daot and Le Heet kodesh - frequently go together in the Bible. Anybody could know what was inside the Holy of Holies, but only the person who was sanctified for the purpose was to know what it was like to go into the holy of holies.

The other time that these two terms are used in connection with each other is in holy matrimony. Anybody can get a copy of Gray's Anatomy and look at the female body: one can look at diagrams, charts, and pictures of ovarian tissue, Fallopian tubes, uterine tissue, or any other aspect of female anatomy; it is all in the textbooks. Anybody may know what comprises a woman's body. The Hebrew term, however, for "to wed" means 'to make holy, to sanctify'. During a Jewish wedding you say Me kudesh, or "with this ring, I wed thee", literally "sanctify"; set apart according to the laws of Moses and Israel. The word for 'to marry' and the word for 'to sanctify' is the same. The Hebrew word for 'to consummate a marriage' is 'to know'.

Anybody can know what is inside a woman's body; but only the man sanctified for the purpose is to know what it is like to go in. In the same way, anybody could know what was inside the Holy of Holies, but no one except the high priest could know what it was like to go in there. It is the same with gonosko, the Greek term. Adam and Eve were always meant to know that there was evil, and that there was a devil. They were intended to know that things had to be subdued on the earth, though it was not yet fallen. They were meant to know objectively, but they were not meant to know experientially. They were to know, but they were not to know.

"Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings." Nakedness in the Bible does not simply mean the nudity on beaches in places such as Maui, Hawaii, or Elat, Israel. The new-agers in such places swim naked and have tattoos of dragons, of flowers, or of any number of other things in places you would not think that people would or should have tattoos; they run around on the beach naked, like the heathens they are. That, however, is not what this is primarily talking about. Adam and Eve were literally naked, yes, but it meant something more than that. Remember the church of Laodicea in Revelation: "You do not know that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked". As Isaiah said, nakedness symbolizes not having the garments of salvation.

Adam and Eve knew that now they needed to be saved, for they had sinned.

In their guilt, therefore, they sewed fig leaves together. Remember what we see in Genesis and in Revelation: a fig tree. In Revelation, the text states that the fig leaves are for the healing of the nations; biblically, therefore, fig leaves are figures or symbols of good works. Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together, and in the same way, fallen man will always try to justify himself before a sinless God with good works.

Every religion on earth is the diametric opposite of the Gospel. When God - that is, Jesus - found Adam and Eve in the Garden wearing their fig leaves, He rejected the fig leaves and said that there must be blood atonement in order to remove sin. Religion is man trying to reach God with good works; the Gospel is God trying to reach man with blood atonement. Religion is man trying to reach God; the Gospel is God trying to reach man. Again, religion is the diametric opposite to the Gospel, no matter what form it takes. It makes no difference whether it is the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons knocking on doors, an Orthodox Jew trying to keep the mitzvot, a Catholic at the Novena, or a Muslim at the haij. Every religion is based on sewing fig leaves together in a futile attempt to be justified before God. There is, however, absolutely no assurance of salvation in that. On the contrary, the Scriptures tell us directly that "all of our righteous deeds are as filthy rags". Am I saying that Mother Theresa's righteous deeds are filthy rags? No, I am not saying that; God is.

Christians do not do good works in order to get saved; real Christians do good works rather because we have been saved. It is not our righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ in and through us. That is totally different from man-made religion. We do good works because we've been saved, not in an attempt to attain salvation for ourselves. This leads to why Jesus cursed the fig tree: it had leaves, but no fruit; in the same way, Israel had a works righteousness based on legalism, but it did not have the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

We should understand that the leaves are certainly important; in the Middle East, the sun is so hot that without leaves the fruit would be destroyed. On a fig tree in particular, the fruit grows underneath the leaves. When Jesus cursed this tree, however, the text states that it was not yet the season for figs. The warning we must glean from this is that the "Son of Man comes at an hour you do not expect"; we must live in readiness at all times. Again, without leaves the fruit would be destroyed; as James tells us, "Faith without works is dead." There's nothing wrong with the leaves, but the fact is that you cannot eat them. Even the best leaves do not make up for a lack of fruit, although you need the leaves. We are not told that we will know people by their works, but that we will know them by their fruit. It should be noted that works can be evidence of fruit, because the leaves normally appear at about the same time as the fruit; but an abundance of leaves is not a guarantee that you will find fruit.

Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together, just as today every religion still does. There are many non-evangelical 'churches' that think they are Christian. If you ask them, "How do you get to heaven?", they will tell you that it is accomplished by having enough good deeds to outweigh your bad deeds, or something similar. What do they do to hide their nakedness? They sew fig leaves together. What do they do at the Mass? They sew fig leaves together. What do they do down at the Mosque? They sew fig leaves together. Every religion sews fig leaves together, even though it is useless in gaining salvation. For that, there must be a blood atonement.

So the story continues: "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the Garden in the cool of the day." The Hebrew word for 'cool' is also the Hebrew word for 'breeze' or 'wind', ruach. The Hebrew word for 'breeze', by turn, is also the Hebrew word for 'spirit': Pneuma in Greek, ruach in Hebrew. So you have here the presence of the Holy Spirit implied in the Hebrew text. "And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. And the Lord called to the man and said to him, 'Where are you?'" We notice here that it speaks of the 'trees of the garden'; concerning the Last Days, Jesus never said we must learn the parable of the fig tree. When you read it in Luke, He actually said, "Learn the parable of the fig tree and the other trees," or, "and all the trees". This is not our subject today, I merely point it out in passing to say that there is much more to the parable of the fig tree than most Christians have a clue about. In fact, the parable of the fig tree and the other trees is found in the Book of Judges chapter nine. But let us continue:

We see now the cast of characters introduced in the Garden; first and foremost, we have God in the person of Jesus, a Christophany. We have Satan in his mode as a deceiver. Then we have naked man. So far, we have three characters: God, Satan, and a naked man. Let us continue with the text: 'And he said, "I heard the sound of the thee in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself." And He said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the Tree of which I commanded you not to eat?'" This sounds perhaps as if God didn't know; God knew, of course, but He was challenging Adam. "And the man said, 'The woman whom Thou gavest to me, she gave me from the Tree and I ate.'" Notice that although God in His omniscience already knew who ate first, He doesn't go to Eve but to Adam. If something, God forbid, goes wrong in my marriage or my family, or in your marriage or your family, gentlemen, it might not be our fault, but as far as God's concerned, it is our problem; the male is God's authority in that relationship.

In the Bible, every time a man lets a woman take spiritual headship, you have a disaster. Abraham and Sarah or Ahab and Jezebel are two examples of this. This goes right back to the Garden of Eden, and as such is one of Satan's oldest tricks. Why is leadership into this error now? We will see that in a moment, but let's continue.

And the man said in verse 12, "'The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the Tree and I ate." Then the Lord God said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?' And the woman said, 'The serpent deceived me and I ate.' And the Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, cursed are you more than all the cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel'" - because of the resurrection. "To the woman, He said, 'I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. You shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.' Then God said to Adam, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the Tree about which I commanded you . . .'" Notice the curse is on Satan first, women second, and men third. Satan first, women second, and men third; the judgment was given in the order of the sin.

Because of the Fall, men have become insensitive. Also because of the Fall, women have become hypersensitive. When a husband and wife get saved, most of the time it is the wife who gets saved first. This is not always the case, but probably at least 75 percent of the time the wife gets saved first. If the husband does get saved first, 75 percent of the time the wife eventually gets saved also; water takes the shape of its container. If the wife gets saved first, however, it is usually a much harder situation. Christian women often grieve for years over their unbelieving husbands. Why is it easier for women to get saved? It is because they are more sensitive. When a husband and wife pray together for direction, it is usually the wife who hears from the Lord first and clearest; men are reliant on female sensitivity because of the Fall. On the other hand, while it is usually easier for women to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, it is also easier for women to hear the voice of a counterfeit spirit and thus fall into deception, to be taken in by spiritual seduction. Women are much more vulnerable to spiritual seduction than are men. Therefore, just as men are reliant on female sensitivity, so women are reliant on male protection. The submission in a Christian marriage is to be mutual, but in different ways; it is an equality with different functions, but the buck stops with the man. Women are more vulnerable to spiritual seduction, while men are more vulnerable to not hearing at all. That's just the way it is in our fallen world. There may have been a propensity towards that before man fell, but the Fall brought it to be what it is now.

It happens in a garden. Next, God dispatches an angel and says, "Get out of here. You cannot come in anymore." Here we are introduced to the fourth character, the angel who says 'get out'. In this garden, man falls. In this garden, God pronounces a curse on men and on women. In this garden, the angel says 'do not come in here.' In this garden man is naked before his God.Yet in this garden, there is also a promise of salvation: "'I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.'" As most of you know, Eve represents Israel and by extension the church. The church is the bride of Christ, and Israel is God's woman.

Anti-Semitism and persecution of the believing church are heads and tails; two sides of the same coin. We can distinguish between the two, but we cannot separate them. God's plan for the salvation of the world depends on his prophetic agenda for Israel and the Jews and for the believing church. The two kinds of people whom the Bible calls Abraham's children are the Jews and the believing church. The return of Jesus Christ depends on the prophetic plan of God for Israel and the Jews, and for the believing church.

Hence, the Jews and the believing church have the same enemy. Why do you think the Muslims hate Israel and hate America? Is it purely political? No. There is a spiritual reason. At this time in history America is the seat of evangelical Christianity, as Britain was a hundred, two hundred years ago, and as Germany and Switzerland were during the Reformation.

"I'll put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed." Look at pagan Rome: first, they turned against the church under Nero. A few years later, they turned against the Jews under Titus. A few centuries later, under the communists in the Soviet Union, who did the Soviets persecute the most? Jews and born-again Christians! Throughout the centuries of the inquisitions, the pogroms, the massacres - who did the Roman Catholic Church persecute the most? Jews and born-again Christians. What do Arafat's followers say? What don't they show you on CNN? They don't show you that the Islamic Arabs whom they champion are the same people who say every day of the week, "First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people. Jihad! Jihad!" In other words, first we kill the Jews, and then we kill the Christians. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.

It all happens in a garden. With this in view, let us look at the midrash:

Turn to John chapter 18 verse one: "When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the ravine of Kidron where there was a garden into which He Himself entered and His disciples." Of the four Gospels, the one that identifies Gethsemane as a garden is John. John, again, is always interested in doing a midrash on Genesis. The Kidron is a narrow valley between the Temple Mount on the west and the Mount of Olives or Har Zeitim on the east. Gethsemane comes from the Hebrew word Shemen, or 'oil'. The olive oil - which we call Shemen ziot - used ritually in the Temple came from Gethsemane. They would harvest the olives growing on the Mount of Olives, and bring them to Gethsemane to be pressed. (There are still olive orchards on the Mount of Olives to this day - in fact, the experts tell us that there are trees there that are 2,000 years old and still growing; they would have been present in the days of Jesus - olive trees live extremely long, if they are not interrupted by earthquakes or pollution or other environmental catastrophes.) It is to Gethsemane that Jesus goes, and there something begins to happen. To God, one man without sin is worth more than all the men with sin: that is how one could die for all.

In this garden, God takes our sin on Himself. He takes our sin and puts it on His son, Jesus, in order to take His righteousness and put it on us.

Jesus suffered physically; He was tortured. He suffered emotionally; the Bible speaks of this time as the 'travail of his soul'. But something else happened on the cross: His fellowship was broken with His Father. We must note also that He said, "It is finished. Father, into Your hands I give My Spirit." Satan's liars in the church today deny this fundamental doctrine:

Copeland, Hagen, Joyce Meyer, all these people are teaching error. They teach that Satan got the victory on the cross, that Jesus' Spirit was not commended to the Father, that it was not finished, and that He had to go to Hell. They teach further that He was tortured in Hell for three days and three nights, and that then He had to be born again in Hell. That is the teaching of Copeland and Hagen, which they got from E. W. Kenyon. They have another Jesus; they have another Gospel, as most of you know. Because the cross of Jesus is not central to their view of salvation, neither is the cross of Jesus central to their view of the Christian life. Instead of "pick up your cross and follow Me", their doctrine is "you're a King's kid, name it and claim it, God wants you rich, believe God for another Mercedes, etc". These men are from the devil, and are some of the false prophets that Jesus warned would come in the Last Days. Today they are doing exactly what Jesus said they would do.

Jesus takes our sin on Himself, not in Hell, but in a garden. That is where God begins to put our sin on Jesus.

The full wrath of God was poured out on Jesus while He was on the cross. "Now, Judas also, who was betraying Him, knew the place, for the disciples had often met there" - Jesus often met there with His disciples - "Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus, therefore, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth and said to them, "Whom do you seek?" And they answered Him, "Jesus, the Nazarene."" Jesus' real name was Rabbi Yeshua BarYosef vi Netzeret. They wouldn't have known who Jesus Christ is, but they would have known who Rabbi Yeshua was; He is the One who raises the dead and heals the lepers; He is the one who could walk on water.

"When, therefore, He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground." The Greek text says that they fell back and then they slid forward. Every knee will bow, even those of His enemies.

The phenomenon of being 'slain in the spirit' happens at various times in the Bible, particularly in the New Testament. In Revelation chapter one, John is in the Spirit in the Lord's day, and when the power of Jesus comes on him, he falls as if slain. He fell forward, and was so terrified that God had to send an angel to encourage him. When Jesus cast a demon out of the child whom the demons kept throwing into the fire, they thought he was dead; but when he got up he was completely different. Daniel, too, was terrified.

Notice that in the Bible whenever someone was slain in the Spirit it was a once in a lifetime life-changing event. It doesn't matter what happens when people go down, how different is their life once they get up? But today, who is getting in line? The same ones who were in line to go down last week. They just want to go down for the thrill of it. As with anything else, a wicked and adulterous generation seeks this sign.

Again, in the Bible being slain in the Spirit was a once in a lifetime, life-changing experience. It doesn't matter what happens when somebody goes down, but how changed their life is when they get up. In the Bible, too, whenever it was a blessing from God, the person in question went forward. The only time they ever went backwards was when it was a curse and a judgment: when they came to arrest Christ.

Today you see Rodney Howard Brown and these guys bringing official 'catchers' with them. But they are falling the wrong direction.People insist that they know this experience is from God; well, it might be indeed, but if it is, He is angry with them. I personally am pretty certain that most of it is hypnotic induction combined with demonic deception. Even if it is of God, however, it is a judgment.

Whom do you seek? Jesus. I am He. In Greek, "I am He," or, ego ami. The Greek equivalent is also found at the end of John chapter 8, where Jesus says, "before Abraham was, I am." Ego ami. The people then tried to stone Him, because He made Himself equal with God.

Let us go back to our cast of characters: In the Garden of Eden is God in the Person of Jesus. In the garden of Gethsemane is God in the Person of Jesus. But then, in the Garden of Eden, Satan as deceiver is present. In the Gospel of John, what happens to Judas just before the disciples accompany Jesus to Gethsemane? The text plainly tells us: Satan entered him. The only two people demon-possessed by Satan personally will be the anti-Christ or false prophet and Judas, the Son of Perdition. John in his epistle describes anti-Christ in the character of Judas. "They went out from among us, but they were not really of us." Whenever you see something about Judas in the Bible, the Holy Spirit is telling you something about the anti-Christ. Both Judas and the Antichrist will be into money; both can deceive the brethren - the disciples were asking, "Lord is it I, Lord is it I?" - they did not know the identity of the traitor until Jesus revealed him. In the same way, people will not know who the real anti-Christ is until Jesus reveals him. If you cannot see through Benny Hinn or Kenneth Copeland or Chuck Colson, what will become of you when the Antichrist comes?

How did Judas con people? He conned people with the Mother Theresa trick: fig leaves. "Could this not have been sold and given to the poor?"- he feigned compassion for the poor in order to ingratiate himself with people, to make them think he was a good guy. In reality, however, he was only using the plight of the poor to seduce, camouflage, and manipulate. Mother Theresa said before she died that she had no assurance of salvation. When she got the Nobel Prize, she made it clear that she did not convert people in India to be Christians, but to be better Hindus and better Muslims. That was her gospel. She cleaned them up, gave them a clean place to die with dignity, and sent them off to Hell in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in a laundry chute.